Saturday, May 2, 2009

Well, it's good to know that if Michael Jackson ever becomes sane again (or ever becomes black again) that there will be someone to take his place. Thank God for Prince to fill the void in the wacky pop singer's personal life category if we ever need one.

Prince has always been an odd duck. He's this wispy dude with little pipe cleaner arms that flail about like linguini when he's playing he guitar in a manner that is simply unbelievable. So don't get me wrong; I DIG Prince. He's one of the few little femmy guys who I think could totally kick somebody's ass if they picked a fight with him. I can't think of any others who could, can you? (Seriously, think about it. Clay Aiken? Toast. Ryan Seacrest? He'd curl up in a ball on the floor and sob for days. I think I made my point.) But he gave an interview with a one Tavis Smiley, who does a talk show on PBS.

No! No! No! That's GUY Smiley! I'm talking about Tavis Smiley.

That's better. So Tavis Smiley interviews Prince and the thing that obviously stands out at first about Prince is that the man is thin. Rail thin. We're talking Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie thin. His head is shaped like a Q-tip on top of a breadstick. And it seems to float on top of his neck, which is quite odd.

But if looks were the strangest thing about this interview, I wouldn't have much to go on. (Besides, in order for his looks to warrant being totally "strange" he'd have to look stranger than Michael Jackson, which is a pretty difficult feat for anyone to accomplish.) It's when Tavis asks him about the lyrics of a song "Dreamer" from Princes album LotusFlow3r that we get a glimpse inside of this guy's head.

According to an article inRolling Stone, Prince tells him, "..when I saw the "State of the Black Union," Dick Gregory really moved me...I show it to everybody...especially white folks, because they need to hear that, so that they know more about all of us."

OK, look, I have an issue with something. It's the part about ..."so that they know more about all of us." US?? Prince is black?!

Then he continued on with odyssey of oddness with, "He said something...about this phenomena of chem trails and when I was a kid, I used to see these trails in the sky all the time and I'd say, "Oh, that's cool - a jet just went over." And then you started to see a whole bunch of them and the next you know, everybody in your neighborhood was fighting and arguing and you didn't know why, okay? And you really didn't know why. I mean, everybody was fighting. So he started riffing about the chem trails...I was so moved that I had to write the song." Um, what?

Even if you've never heard the term 'chem trails', you likely know that they are the white exhaust or 'smoke' that airplanes sometimes leave in the sky. Prince and Dick Gregory and a bunch of other softheads believe that the airplane exhaust is really a cover for the chemicals that the government is spreading over the land to control the people or something like that. They believe it's a big conspiracy. The Chem Trails Conspiracy. All rightee then. What else?Well, as I looked through the transcript of the interview over there on PBS I found out that Prince is somewhat of a history buff when he revealed, "We're all indentured servants. When I found out there were eight presidents before George Washington, I wanted to smack somebody. I wanted to know why I was taught otherwise. Just tell me the whole story - I'll fill in the blanks. But don't tell me something that you think I'm supposed to know." Um, wait.

Eight presidents before George Washington? The George Washington who was the FIRST President? I find that unlikely. I find it even more unlikely that PRINCE would be the one informing me of this if it were true. After a quick check (God bless those Google boys) my suspicions were confirmed. Prince is nuts.

There were not eight presidents before George Washington. Prince is referring to the time when the Confederation Congress was running the show based on the Articles of the Confederation. But it was the Constitution, NOT the Articles of Confederation, that created the position known as President of the United States. And I could elaborate more on this concept, but I'm supposed to be amusing, not boring! (Actually, I should just be able to say "Prince is nuts" and leave it at that after the sort of statement that he made, but for some reason, you have to explain WHY people are nuts. That used to be one of the great things about other people's nuttiness; there was no need for explanation. They were just crazy. But if you do need more explanation, the folks over there at Snopes.com have done a fabulous job of it.)

And to briefly touch on his claim of all of us being "indentured servants", he might want to check the definition of such again, as we're not. I understand that he's basically trying to imply that we're all "workin' for the man" or something like that, but indentured servitude is not how we're going about it. Following that however, Smiley said, "We're indentured servants and we've got a Black president now?" And that's when we learned that Prince doesn't vote. "Well, I don't vote. I don't have nothing to do with it. I got no dog in that race." Um, we weren't voting for dogs.

You know, people like that? I'm glad they don't vote. Really. That's fine with me. In fact, there are a lot of people who DO vote who I wish would not vote. Simply because they have no idea what they're voting FOR or AGAINST. The feel good voters! (Translation: Morons, that is correct.) When Smiley asked him why he didn't vote, he said, "Well, the reason why is because I'm one of Jehovah's witnesses and we've never voted. That's not to say that I don't think Barack Obama - President Obama - is a very smart individual and he seems like he means well. Prophecy is what we all have to go by now."

Oh, for hell's sake! Couldn't he have just said he was a Jehovah's Witness at the beginning of the interview and saved us all the perplexing stares and Scooby head tilts?! If they had just put a disclaimer at the bottom of the screen that said "Tonight's guest is a Jehovah's Witness", THEN instead of saying, "What?!" when he's talking about eight other Presidents, we simply would have gone, "Aaahhh. OK." .

I'm just glad the wackiness will continue even after Michael Jackson doesn't continue. Though I have the feeling that after Michael's concerts in London in July, there might not be any need for a successor to the Throne of Wackiness. Those concerts might give us all something to talk about for a long, long time. But even if they don't, it's good to know we can just pull Prince out of the cupboard and wind him up and let him go! Hours of entertainment fun for the whole family!

9 comments:

There were not eight presidents before George Washington. Prince is referring to the time when the Confederation Congress was running the show based on the Articles of the Confederation. But it was the Constitution, NOT the Articles of Confederation, that created the position known as President of the United States.Were there eight leaders under that system? If so, I think Prince is pretty astute. How many even know about the Articles. After all, it's the same people and the same location being governed....only the label has changed. You sell Prince short.

But there's not denying that artists are often eccentric, and the more talented they are, the more eccentric they can be.

But Prince is in the Jehovah's Witnesses hall of fame, as described here. I won't have anything bad said about him.

and Clay Aiken despite being openly gay is not femmy or one to back down from a fight. Idiots like you think its funny to make jokes about him but you don't know anything about him other than what you hear from other assholes that don't know him either.

Clay Aiken makes Prince, Michael Jackson, Boy George, David Gest, *insert the names of all other VERY EFFEMINATE men in the world* look MACHO!!

Aiken might not back down from a fight if it's a little old lady on an airplane after he's put his disgusting feet on her armrest, or any other old woman...LOL!!

Nobody has to make jokes about Aiken, as he's made HIMSELF into a joke.

You're fooling yourself if you think you know the REAL Clay Aiken. You only see what Aiken WANTS you to see, although if you really paid attention, you'd see bits and pieces of the real Clay Aiken, and believe me, it's NOT pretty.

Wow. Methinks I have offended the Claymates. But before you continue to get yourself all riled up, I'm not fooling myself at all, as you seem to think I am. I have made ZERO claim to imply that I "know the real Clay Aiken". I don't. It was meant to be a comedic comparison. It had nothing to do with his being gay. It had to do with it being late when I wrote that and I just went with the first couple of femmy guys that popped into my head. It wasn't based on anything I'd heard from "other a-holes". Interesting that you'd jump to the conclusion that it's because he's gay, however. How come y'all aren't jumping to little Ryan's defense?

And Mr. Sheepandgoats (excellent name, by the way), well, first of all, thanks for not implying that I'm an a-hole. That's nice.

There were eight different guys who were elected to head the Confederation Congress, yes. However, they were not presiding over the United States of America at that time, as it had not been established until the Constitution did so.

The Confederaton Congress had a very, VERY limited power and was more of a formality than an effective governing body.

The Articles of Confederation did NOT establish the United States of America. To say that they did is the equivalent of saying that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization established the nation of NATO.

It was the Constitution that created the position of the chief executive, a position that did NOT exist under the Articles of Confederation. While the Confederaton Congress had leaders, each one (I think) sat for a year which is far short from the terms set by the Constitution.

It's a trivial matter that is fine to discuss and to learn about and to be included in lessons about the history of this country. However, to take a bit of trivia and use it to form a warped perception of history is not useful. If he had said that he couldn't believe that there was a governing body over this country before George Washington became the first President, that would be a completely valid statement, one which I would agree with. But there were not eight PRESIDENTS before George Washington.

I don't sell him short. I like Prince. Always have. He's just wrong about the eight Presidents thing. (I noticed you didn't mention his chem-trails assertion.) You do make a good point about the artist angle. The artsy ones tend to be a bit eccentric in a variety of ways. I could have pointed that out.

Okay, there were eight. Look, for a guy who doesn't pay excessive attention to politics, (which is 95% of this country) I'd say his observation showed amazing depth. How many people know anything of American life before the constitution? Yes, he was wrong on a pretty essential detail, still the outline of his statement is correct.

I noticed you didn't mention his chem-trails assertion.Um.....no.

:)

And, the JW Hall of Fame is my own tongue-in-cheek invention, in response to the Atheist Hall of Fame, which is also my own invention. It's all in that link I included:

http://tinyurl.com/cvlrcg

I really don't follow this type of music too much and don't know anything about the other musicians listed. I follow Jehovah's Witnesses. That's why I know about Prince. And Michael Jackson, back from the days when he used to be one.

Here's my analogy (I'm not sure that it's the best one, given that I read your post about Prince that you linked to & my analogy is football themed, but we'll see): It's like saying that the Green Bay Packers were not the winners of the first Super Bowl because NFL Championship games had been played since 1933 and that they're essentially the same. No, they're not the same at all. Same thing with President of the United States and the Confederation Congress.

The guys who were chosen to lead the Conferation Congress had little more power than to open and close the meetings. Their role would be akin to that of chairman at a board meeting.

I suppose that if I thought that Prince was asserting this notion under the belief that he, as a history buff, had been misled and misinformed about the shaping of the United States executive branch of government, and that he needed to make sure that everyone else was not similarly misled, then that would be one thing.

However, I don't get that impression. (I also have no reason to believe he's a history buff; that was just part of my example.) I get the impression that he's trying to illustrate just "one more way" that "injustice has been served". I'm over those who are constantly voicing (usually loudly) their baseless claims of continued persecution.

He says he wants to know the "whole story". If he read the "whole story" he'd understand why the eight guys who ran the Confederation Congress were not the equivalent of the President of the United States.

I give you credit for asking "How many people know anything of American life before the constitution?" because it assumes that people know anything of American life AFTER the Constitution. That's very optimistic. I need that. +)

I had forgotten that Michael Jackson was a JW (got that from the other link you posted). Personally, I don't care what people do or believe, just as long as it doesn't hurt anyone else (or wake me up when I'm sleeping in). That being said, wacky is wacky and poking a little good natured fun at such wackiness should probably be expected (if not totally warranted).

Besides, if I could gently mock the masses, I'd have no blog. And you'd have all the sheep and goats. I'd be lost. =)